Penlurhala. COMPOSIT.E. 



305 



wlio vory i)iobnl)Iy found it only in At izoiin, wlipic it liiis sinco hrou raWrv.lcA hy Dr. AntixcU and 

 ])i: Palmer, mid in S. Utnli f.y /Vim/. — liculs less tliun Imll' itn inHi in diiunctiM-. Ix^uvcs 

 lineni-lanceoliile iind soniewliat simtnlute, half an incli or less in length, about a line wide. 

 Akenes 2 lines long, when mature resembling pellets of wool. 



10. PENTACH^TA, Nutt. 

 Heads solitary, terminating slender branches, lioleroganious Avith the rays fertile, 

 or sometimes rayless, several - many-Howcred. Involucre of numerous or rather few 

 thin and smootli more or less scariously margined oblong or lanceolate scales, loosely 

 imbricated in two or more series, destitute of green tips. Keccptacle convex, sonie- 

 wliat foveolate. Rays few or numerous, with oblong ligulc on a slender tube, or 

 sometimes the ligule and sometimes the whole pistillate ray-flowers wanting. Disk- 

 corollas 5-toothed. Anthers tipped with a small subulate appendage. Branches of 

 the style in the disk-flowers bearing a long filiform-subulate but flattish appendage, 

 much longer than the stiginatic portion. Akenes oblong, compressed, hirsute. 

 l'api)us of 5 (rarely somewhat fewer or more numerous) slender and rigid persistent 

 serrulate-scabrous bristles, which are shorter than the disk-corollas, abruptly en- 

 larged (but not paleaceous) at the very base, occasionally unequal, sometimes all 

 reduced to short rudiments or wholly obsolete. — Low and slender annuals (wholly 

 Californian), more or less pubescent, or sometimes glabrous, with filiform-linear and 

 entire alternate leaves, and small or middle-sized heads. Corollas either all yellow, 

 or those of the disk sometimes'turning purple, the rays when present usually yel- 

 low, sometimes white! — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 249; (»ray, I'roc. Am. Acad. viii. 

 033. Aphantochceta, Gray in Pacif. Ii. Kep. iv. 43, t. 11. 



A peculiarly Californian genus of two species {P. gracilis, Tkntli., of Mexico, Iwing an Oxy. 

 pappus), remarkable for having, like Lcs.iingia, cither yellow or white rays. 



1. P. aurea, Nutt. At length diffusely branched, 3 to 12 inches high : heads 

 many-flowered : scales of the involucre lanceolate, mostly acuminate or acut^, and 

 with broad and thin scarious margins, the outer successively shorter : rays 7 to 40, 

 deep golden yellow : pappus of f) (or somotimos fi to S) hrisllos. 



Dry plains, southern part of tlio State, chiedy known from Ran Diego Co., Nutldll, Parry, kc. 

 T>cavps an inch or le.sa in length, the upper reduced to small subulate bracts on the terminal 

 T)eduncle. Heads varying from a quarter to half an inch in length. Mature akenes not seen, 

 but ai)i)arently compressed as in the ne.xt. To this apparently belongs Iwth the varieties described 

 in Bot. Me.x. Boundary, 81. 



2. P. ezilis, Gray, 1. c. Erect or with ascending branches, 3 to 8 inches high : 

 scales of the involucre oblong, obtuse, but commonly mucronnto, nil of nearly equal 

 length and with narrow scarious margins : lieads in the larger forms nmny-flowci-cd 

 and with 10 to 14 sulphur-colored or sometimes white rays : jiajipus of 5 equal or 

 somewhat unequal bristles, or occasionally with some or nil the bristles obsolete. 

 (To this belongs the P. aurea of liigelow's collection in "Whipple's ICxpedition, of 

 Bolander's Catalogue, kc.) 



Var. discoidea. Heads with from 9 to 20 disk-flowers and no rays : bristles 

 of the papi^us present. 



Var. aphantochaeta. Heads, &c., as in var. discnnlcn, or with 3 to f) pistillate 

 marginal flowers destitute of ligule : pappus obsolete or nearly so. — Aphau(ochcr(a 

 exiUs, Gray, 1. c. 99, t. 11. 



Hillsides, from Snnta Cruz to Nana Co., kr. Much like the foregoing. excei>t in the particu- 

 lars mentioned. Scales of the involucre seldom over 2 lines long, nlxiut lii or 18 in the fuller- 

 llowored heads, occupying two ranks of about e(|ual length, reduced to 7 or 10 and Romelimes 

 almost to a single rank in the fewer- flowered and depaupei-nte stntcs. Mature nkencs lint onJ 



